Ashley Lewis (00:19)
Yeah, I’m gonna try. I’m gonna try.

Brandi Lewis (00:42)
I would say this, my first question to you is, how old were you when you knew that you wanted to go into the art space? Because you went into interior design first and we’ll get into that, and then fashion. So how old were you when you knew that you wanted to do that?

Ashley Lewis (00:57)
⁓

I knew I wanted to do like either something with math or something in the arts. And I know those are two totally polar opposite things, but I knew I kind of wanted to be in one of those fields. I didn’t know exactly, I was leaning, actually leaning more towards math because I didn’t really like know anybody in the arts community. So I didn’t know what that looked like, how you get there. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (01:20)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (01:26)
But it just happened, like just in talking with people and networking, really close family friends of ours owned an architecture company. And that’s when I spent two of my high school summers interning there. And I just asked to not for pay or anything. I just wanted to observe and see how. ⁓

like what they do, what is architecture, and then they opened my eyes up to what interior design was. And that’s where I felt like, okay, I feel like this is where I need to be. ⁓ So they kind of actually helped me know where to go, like what schools to look at, ⁓ certain criteria with schools when I was touring schools and applying. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (01:53)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (02:15)
things to ask questions about so that you can kind of get a feel for the program because every program is different. So that’s actually kind of how I got started in art. I mean, I had always been in art because actually in high school, my favorite class I took was AP photography. And I took that as a junior, either a sophomore or a junior in high school. I think it was a junior and it was one of my favorite classes. And I was like, oh my gosh.

Brandi Lewis (02:32)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (02:44)
I could be a photographer for the rest of my life and be totally happy with this. Like it was just, like it brought me so much joy.

Brandi Lewis (02:51)
Yeah, I feel like the art field, a lot of different sections of the art field have always come easily to you or something. I can tell, like you said, it’s like brought you joy. It’s like where you feel most comfortable and you’re actually really good at it. I can’t draw worth a lit, you’ve seen my drawings, they’re horrible. But they’re horrible. But like it…

Ashley Lewis (03:11)
xD

Brandi Lewis (03:18)
it comes so naturally to you. And I like, I asked that question about like, when did you know? Because like my first memories of you and not first, but when I was younger, because I’m three, well, I’m telling other people I’m three years younger than Ashley. So I’d say some of my first memories of you was really like you with the purse over your shoulder or you with the little mini heels on.

you always holding my hand saying, on Brandi, like a second mom, like those are my memories of you. And I felt like it’s not shocking to see you go into the art field because that was what I saw when you, even when you were younger.

Ashley Lewis (04:01)
Yeah,

I mean, I look back at pictures like when mom made me a little picture book when I turned 30 and she puts them in like my younger years to middle school years to high school years. And it’s funny that you kind of see that same thing. I always had, I’m not kidding you guys, like when I was younger, I always had a purse with me. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (04:20)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (04:27)
always, I was always dressed up, even if I was playing outside with my cousin and then like the kids in the neighborhood. Like I was always just really girly in that sense too. But I always was interested in like how clothes were made. And my grandmother had a really old sewing machine at the time. And she would like sit me down and show me how to use it and teach me the different parts of it. ⁓ And she would actually be like,

Brandi Lewis (04:44)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (04:56)
we’re going to make an apron. So like we would make aprons and that’s how we like cook together too. So that’s, she’s one of the people I learned to cook from. And that’s how like we would make aprons or just make little small things. It wasn’t really clothing, but it was just like getting used to what a sewing machine was because at that time not many people were still sewing. And it’s such a dying art in our community as artists, like sewing is, it’s a skill that you have to keep doing.

Brandi Lewis (05:12)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (05:26)
⁓ But once you keep doing it, I’ve met some really talented tailors, some really talented seamstress, and you’d be amazed at what they could and could not do with just a sewing machine. Literally, a needle and some thread if you think about it.

Brandi Lewis (05:42)
Yeah, it’s so cool to hear you talk about that. Like in our family, we always joke like you are, I feel like the most talented hand wise. Like you were, we will have an idea and Ash is like, oh yeah, I can make that. Like Courtney’s wedding for like Courtney’s wedding and coming up with like all this stuff. got to a point where I was like, don’t ask her Courtney, don’t ask her to make nothing else for you. Cause it comes so easily to you like mentally if, that’s easy, that’s easy to make. And for us we’re like that.

Ashley Lewis (05:57)
yeah.

Brandi Lewis (06:12)
My mind does not work in that way. I don’t think any of ours. think you and daddy, I’d say daddy gets it. He gets it a little bit more. Yeah, he does.

Ashley Lewis (06:13)
I’m

You

Yeah, it’s funny because dad has the engineer brain. So sometimes I could be like this,

no, not clothing related, just anything. Like I’m like, have this idea. Can you help me make it? And I’ll explain to him my idea and he can be like, okay, yeah, I’ll take it. And he figures out that rest of it, like the actually putting it together part, which is interesting.

Brandi Lewis (06:38)
Yeah,

I always say he should have been an engineer because he literally, that’s how his brain works for sure. I think we all get, it’s so funny, like out of mom and dad, like we all get a little bit from both of them. Courtney’s most like mama. And as far as like having the gifted gab, like that is their thing. They could sell anybody and networking. Yes. Yes. Courtney thinks she’s a matchmaker. Like, yeah, that.

Ashley Lewis (06:41)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

and networking. They are good at really at meeting people. Yeah, that’s not my thing.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (07:06)
That is Courtney and mama. And I think you and daddy and

me, we’re more of like trying to figure things out. But, and just to put in perspective for people that are listening, like my mom and dad have always said, like when, if we’re planning a party, Ashley’s doing all the work. She’s the one like using her hands to get everything created. I am the, what do you call it? The project manager. Oh, I can, I can project manage you.

Ashley Lewis (07:30)
The project manager is what mama calls it.

Brandi Lewis (07:36)
tell everybody where to go. They don’t even ask. And I’m like, I don’t care. This is what you’re going to do. Nobody, nobody in the family asks, but I give them a, this is what you’re, this is on your list. In my mind, this is what I have for you to do. You don’t get a yes or a no. You’re just going to do it. And then, yeah. So I’m more like the organization project manager, like just remembering times and stuff of like, okay, we’re almost at time. Like this.

Ashley Lewis (07:40)
They don’t ask!

You

Yeah

you

Brandi Lewis (08:04)
This is all we got to get done. And then Courtney is the one that comes in at the end, greeting everybody like she has done everything. Like seriously, out of the three of us, we all have something different, which is really cool. Yeah. Like look at this. Yeah. Ashley made this, but I can tell you about it. Like that, that is the three of us. mom and dad always say that like, and that’s really how we’ve planned parties. Seriously. ⁓

Ashley Lewis (08:09)
You

She can show them around, tell them about everything like she’s been there.

Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (08:32)
My younger sister, which we’ll have on the podcast, she had a baby a year ago and, um, our first nephew, SJ, and he turned a year old. So, um, we went, we went thinking we’re going to the party. You know, we thought, okay, yeah, we’ll help her set everything up. But like, this is going to be easy. You know, we get.

Ashley Lewis (08:44)
yeah, just a couple weeks ago.

No, no,

Brandi Lewis (08:57)
to the location with two hours to set everything up. Me and Ashley walk in and there’s only a few tables up and that’s it. Literally nothing done. We had two hours. So Ashley goes and yeah, I think we stood there in silence for a minute because we were like, we have two hours to get all this together.

Ashley Lewis (09:05)
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

And we were just like,

Yeah. Okay. And it was like

80 to 100 people, including kids. It was more, it was a lot. Yeah. It was pretty big.

Brandi Lewis (09:24)
Yeah, it was, was big.

But I think we all, like, we don’t even have to talk to each other and come up for playing. We just all switch into gear. And that’s literally what happened. So Ashley did most of like making the stuff, Courtney had bought everything, but like Ashley put together the cake and make sure it looked good and found a place to sit it. And I’m like, okay, I’m like, I’m looking at the time and I’m like, all right, we got an hour left. This is, yeah.

Ashley Lewis (09:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

putting people to work

Brandi Lewis (09:56)
put daddy to work. He was so tired of me. He was so tired of me, but I was like, he was trying to sit down. I was not letting him. I was like, we need your help. Like we’re an hour in now. We still have to do this, this and this. Like we got things to get done. So we all just kind of switched into gear. And then of course Courtney comes in in the end with her child and is, ⁓ yeah.

Ashley Lewis (09:59)
That man was trying to sit down.

Yeah.

Yes.

⁓ She’s like, this is great.

I mean, granted, she did have a vision. She did have, she had a really good vision. It was really cutely themed. She had it all planned out as far as executing it. She didn’t think that happened. Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (10:24)
It’s her. Yes, she had a vision. She did. She did.

Yeah, and we were like, Courtney, we need you to tell us where you want stuff.

She told us, I don’t know. She had everything. She bought everything. She had the color scheme. Like the cake was gorgeous. Like she, she bought everything. I had it there. But as far as like putting it together day of, she was done.

Ashley Lewis (10:41)
I don’t know, literally.

Yeah, she was like, I didn’t think past this point. She’s

like, I was done after today.

Brandi Lewis (10:59)
Yeah, so that

literally is the three of us, which is funny, I feel like just click into gear. But as far as Ashley, she’s more of like our artsy girl is what we call her. She’s the creative one, the one that can use her hands. If we need I mean, she’s probably him too many pants of ours. She’s probably tired of us like she she is the one to do that within the family, which is really cool.

Ashley Lewis (11:16)
Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (11:22)
I do want to go into like your education So after high school, after going through the internship, is that when you knew that you wanted to go into more of like interior design ⁓ after your internship?

Ashley Lewis (11:37)
⁓ yeah, that’s

when I knew like exactly what I wanted to study in college. Like I didn’t need to like go to college, take a year and take some classes to figure out. I started studying interior design as a freshman. Like my freshman classes were interior design classes. ⁓ And then I had some core classes, of course, just being a freshman, I’m sick of you core classes. But yeah, that’s what I signed up to study because, and this is one thing people don’t realize too, and I didn’t realize it.

thankful for the architecture company because that’s who opened my eyes to it. You have to do like a special test, honestly, for some of those like art fields. They wanna make sure that you’re serious about it because it is, it’s not, I won’t say it’s something you can’t get out of, but it’s like you do spend a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of energy doing these projects, going to these classes and they kind of,

Brandi Lewis (12:15)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (12:37)
like your curriculum for those four years are really dedicated to what you’re studying. when I say I had core classes, I had very few core classes because the way that they created the curriculum was the core classes were also part of your interior design classes. So it’s a lot more emphasis on the design part and little on the core because they know you’re coming from high school, you should have your core.

Brandi Lewis (12:54)
Wow.

Ashley Lewis (13:03)
done at that point. And it’s not like we need calculus and we need to be studying like these really hard maths or hard sciences because we’re not going there. So you kind of have to take not mostly a special test, but they just want to make sure like you’re very interested in the program.

Brandi Lewis (13:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, that’s really cool. And it seems like for you, I feel like you’ve always been this way from me just watching you through life is you’ve always just like, that’s what I want to do. And from what I’ve seen outside looking in, it’s like there is no doubt, no hesitation that that’s what you’re going to do. Like, where does that come from? Where does that drive come from?

Ashley Lewis (13:45)
I

think it’s more so just like I’ll look at something and I let it melt to marinate, but I’m just like, okay, if this is God’s will, he will show me the way. He will provide for me the way. Cause that’s how I got into to scat. We can talk about that later, but that’s literally how I got into scat. was like, it was such a God willed moment. And I felt like,

Brandi Lewis (14:06)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (14:14)
My life and what I wanted for my life was also aligning with what God wanted for my life. So I feel like when those two things meet, then it’s like, okay, now I can direct your steps and I can provide for you and order your steps so that you can get there. Not saying it wasn’t hard, believe me, it was hard, but I definitely felt like he made it possible for me to do it. I mean, yes, he has to do the supernatural and I have to do the natural. Like I have to do…

Brandi Lewis (14:42)
I hate.

Ashley Lewis (14:43)
my work here, I can’t just sit back and hope that it happens. No, there is some action that I have to take and just be like, okay, I’m gonna try it. And if it’s a no, it’s a no. And it was for me, if it was a no, wasn’t a big deal. But when I got the yes, I was utterly shocked, like utterly shocked and surprised. Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (14:58)
Yeah. Yeah. And

we can move more into that. So you graduated from Mississippi State, you go to Mississippi State for interior design, you graduate there.

Ashley Lewis (15:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and then I was working ⁓ at an architecture, a different architecture company ⁓ back in Birmingham for a few years. And it was just the timing of when I started working and then just how the economic situation was at the time.

It was not great. And so we always had this saying in interior design and architecture, it’s just like, if people aren’t making money, the first thing that they’re not doing is like expanding on homes or expanding on offices. Like that’s something that they would pull back on. And so that’s literally how we saw the market trending for interior design and architecture at the time. And then the company that I was working at was so small that they had to kind of just pull back too.

Brandi Lewis (15:42)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (15:57)
So I got let go from that company and then I was just doing odd-end jobs and then I was working at this, I’m not kidding you, it’s called a lighting controls place where we would like sell lighting control, like the little lighting fixtures that are in like commercial buildings, we would sell those and like figure out the connection for them. And I was a project manager. And when I say I hated my job, I’ve never.

Brandi Lewis (16:12)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (16:25)
hated a job that much, but I hated that job. It was terrible, like just go and the people there were great, they were nice, but it was just what I was doing. was like, this is awful. I was like, I cannot do this for the rest of my life. So then I was like, okay, what can I do? I was like, I’m a creative, like what can I do with this? And it was funny. Then I thought back because right before I graduated from Mississippi State, ⁓

Brandi Lewis (16:27)
Not your passion.

Ashley Lewis (16:52)
I met the director of fashion design and she was like, my God, you’d be great in fashion design. You should think about it. And I was like, I’m graduating in a year. I don’t have, like, I can’t stay another few more years for this. And so I just thought back to that moment and I was like, ⁓ you know what? Maybe I should look into this. And I was like, so I started looking and I was like, I didn’t want to do another four years because that’s a bachelor’s again. But I was like, are there places that offer masters?

Brandi Lewis (16:59)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (17:20)
degrees in fashion design and SCAD was one of them and it’s pretty close to home. And I was like, okay, I could go to the Atlanta campus and I could do this. But I was like, the applying for it was really intense. It was very intense. It was very much like, oh my God, I don’t know if I’m gonna get this. Like I honestly thought that they were gonna tell me no. I’m not kidding you. I literally thought I was getting a no letter. So I applied and I’m not kidding you, two weeks, two to three, maybe four weeks later.

Brandi Lewis (17:42)
No.

Ashley Lewis (17:48)
I got the letter and they were like, you’ve been accepted. And I was like, there’s no way, like this is not possible. And I literally had to keep reading the letter over and over again. And I had about two weeks to move and find an apartment. We literally pulled my trailblazer over with a U-Haul hitch on the back, as much furniture as we could fit in.

Brandi Lewis (18:04)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (18:12)
pulled up to Ikea, got my bed, got my TV stand. We got some other stuff and then we pulled up to the apartment unloaded and I literally started SCAD about the next Monday or a couple of days later and I just walked in blindly and was like, okay, here we are, we’re starting over but here we are and I actually met some really great people there.

Brandi Lewis (18:38)
Yeah, I remember you telling me that. I think for me, that’s one thing that I love to brag about, especially on top of Spanx is like, I have a sister that went to SCAD and SCAD is not easy to get into, like you said, like it’s a lot of hard work.

Ashley Lewis (18:50)
and stay in. It’s not easy

to get in and it’s not easy to stay in. It’s a different structure of a university, especially for someone who’s went to like an SEC school and you know, like it’s like football, there’s athletic, like huge athletics. And it’s like, there’s this huge count of people, like a student body. At SCAD, you’re all creative. So you all are like, which is kind of nice though that you’re all like-minded.

Brandi Lewis (18:55)
That’s true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (19:20)
So you could piggyback off each other or pick each other’s brains when you’re working on something late at night in the studio and you’re like, my gosh, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to put this together or how to construct it or sketch it out, but this is my idea, but you have someone there who’s going through the same things. And you can kind of just like, what about this or what about this or here, I have some extra ink or whatever that you can use. So that’s nice too.

Brandi Lewis (19:26)
Yep.

Yeah, it’s definitely structured differently. And I remember like all the late nights you’ve had at SCAD and all of y’all collectively like up at 1 a.m. in the morning, like it’s normal. ⁓ You know, like you said, it was hard to stay in. Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (19:51)
yeah.

yeah, we would go and get like Krispy Kreme

at like, I’m not kidding, Krispy Kreme and coffee at like 3 a.m. Some nights we would literally sleep there and SCAD got to the point where they didn’t allow people to sleep there anymore. Cause it was like, what’s like you guys need to go home. And then the driving late at night to just making sure we were safe. But most of the time, most of us would like, if we were there, we were there, we would.

Brandi Lewis (20:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (20:24)
do a big carpool and like find whatever food place was open late at night. And so that’s when I think cookout became like really popular for us. I’m not kidding. We would go to cookout late at night because it was cheap and we could eat and then we could get back to studying really quick. Yeah. Yeah. Like 3 a.m. Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (20:37)
Yep. Only thing open too around that time too. Yeah. You didn’t have a lot of options.

But that also, I think for me, what I hear is also your dedication because at any time you could have said, I don’t want to do this anymore. And you didn’t. Like it just shows how dedicated you’ve also been to your dreams and your goals and really

Ashley Lewis (20:53)
Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (21:00)
moving forward and doing what you want to do in your life and not having people tell you what to do in your life, which I think is very beautiful. I want to back up for a minute talking about Mississippi State because you had an amazing teacher that you always told us about and how she, yep, how she inspired you, how she spoke blessings and life into you. Like,

Ashley Lewis (21:14)
This is Bateman. I love Miss Bateman.

Brandi Lewis (21:23)
Tell me about your relationship with your teacher that really kind of helped you keep moving forward in life too, because that’s important, those relationships.

Ashley Lewis (21:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, I

mean, she became part of my community. She was literally like, she would call herself our mother and that’s literally what she was for us. She was like, if you guys, she was like, don’t be sitting over here not eating anything. Like if you need money for food or if you need food or if you need art supplies or need this, like we can figure it out. Like she was always willing to help. And it’s funny because when you got sick, I just left. Like I left.

Brandi Lewis (21:39)
Mm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (22:00)
everything. I didn’t have anything with me. I just left. Well, Miss Bateman literally calls me on my cell phone, which I don’t know if teachers could do that at the time. But she calls me and is like, Ashley, what’s going on? Like, this is not normal. You’re not in class. You’re not responding. Like, no one’s heard from you. And so I explained to her the situation and she was like, you know what? I got it. So she communicated with my other teachers and

Brandi Lewis (22:09)
Yeah.

Aww.

Ashley Lewis (22:28)
I was able to do some of my work remotely for a little bit and then I just had to go back and present it, but it didn’t let me have, like I didn’t have to extend my time like another semester or anything, but she was so sweet. Yeah, she was like really godsend. She called me and she was like, no, I get it. I understand. You’ve got something, you’ve got family stuff going on. She was like, let me see what I can do. let’s just, she said, let’s just keep communicating and keep talking.

Brandi Lewis (22:41)
wow.

Ashley Lewis (22:57)
And so I would keep updating her on the situation and she was able to like really help me. Cause I didn’t know how I thought I was going to have to take a semester off and just be like, I’ll figure it out. But it’s an interior and that’s she explained. The way the curriculum is set up. When you take a semester off, it doesn’t put you back just a semester. It could put you back a year or two because those classes don’t like a lot, like there’s a certain order in which you have to take the classes.

Brandi Lewis (23:05)
Yeah.

⁓ wow.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (23:26)
and they don’t

always just pop up like your core classes do. So she was like, let me see what we can do to keep you on track. Because she’s like, if not, we got to figure out how to even, if you take the semester off, we got to figure out how that will play into you graduating and how much more time you’ll have to spend here. And I was like, oh, I didn’t realize that. So yeah, so she was great. She was amazing.

Brandi Lewis (23:52)
That’s so cool. think that’s one thing that I’ve loved. If you’ve listened to past episodes, I talk about how I was diagnosed with two rare blood disorders. It’s been over 15 years now, but my family went through it with me. And I think what’s so cool that I’ve loved to hear now that I’m like 15 years out is just like everybody’s side stories of how they’ve had other people supporting them while they’re…

sister or their loved one was going through something. I think that’s such a cool side story just to hear of like having those really important relationships in your life and how they really matter and how they really help. Especially at times like that where like I knew at that time, I knew that I was going to have to take a year off of school and that’s what I had to do. I knew I was set back, but I had no clue that like you could have also been set back too when you’re in your schooling. That’s so interesting.

Ashley Lewis (24:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, and that’s when

I took like a few weeks off ⁓ and then I had to go back, but I was back more on the weekends, like.

Brandi Lewis (24:54)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (24:55)
for

a little bit. I was going back and forth on the weekends a lot during that time because I still had to keep up with school. And I kind of like rearrange. I think my classes at that time, I didn’t have Friday classes. So like I would sometimes leave like Thursday after my later class on Thursday and then just go home and come back Monday right before my first class. I would do a lot of my work at home and I would just have to.

Brandi Lewis (24:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I do remember

that.

Ashley Lewis (25:20)
Yeah,

I had my car just packed with all my basically art supplies that I needed and I would just take it with me and just do it at home. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (25:27)
That’s so crazy. So I love Miss Bateman because I feel like mom and daddy also thought that Miss Bateman was like a godsend also and just, yeah, just being there. I wonder where she is. I don’t know if you keep in touch with her, but I think that’d be-

Ashley Lewis (25:36)
⁓ yeah, the statement is awesome.

I

messages from her on Facebook every now and then. I don’t know what she’s doing. I don’t know if she’s still teaching or she retired, but if anyone had Miss Bate, many of you guys understand that she has a very big heart. I went to, yeah, she has a very, very big heart. And she really cares for the students that are like coming up in that field. And she wants them to really like grow in that field. So that was really nice too.

Brandi Lewis (25:45)
Really?

Yeah.

That’s awesome. So fast forwarding at SCAD now, you’re shocked that you get in. You’re at SCAD, you get in, we move you there with like two weeks to spare. Not even that. You’re starting school while also trying to get your home together at the same time. ⁓ So tell me about your experience at SCAD and what you did there.

Ashley Lewis (26:34)
So SCAD was actually a little bit like the, like when I said the schools is a little bit of a different structure. So Mississippi State and most schools are designed in like semesters. SCAD is based in quarters. So you have 10 weeks. If you think about it, that’s only what? Two and a half months?

Brandi Lewis (26:55)
It’s nothing.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (26:59)
That’s nothing. So in those 10 weeks, you probably have, I can’t tell you like so many big projects and a few small projects that you have to complete in those 10 weeks for each class that you’re taking. So if you’re taking, I think for me, I think I started taking three, which is a lot because of the 10 week structure. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (27:27)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (27:28)
And then…

I think I took three and then there was one time I was like, I can take four in that fourth class. I was like, I never again, never again will I ever try four. Cause I was like, four should be fine. Like three feels tight. Like it feels uncomfortable, but four I was like, it should be okay. Like it’s just one more class. No, no, no, no. I was like, I don’t know what I was thinking. And I was like, that was the worst 10 weeks ever. Cause it was so, so much.

Brandi Lewis (27:40)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (28:01)
at one time, but yeah, it’s based on quarters, not semesters. So it’s a short amount of time, but you’re trying to learn as much as you can learn from that class within that short amount of time. But you take everything from art history to drawing and sketching classes to studio classes where you work on construction, ⁓ to learning how to sketch on the computer using Illustrator and all those things.

It’s like an array of classes depending on which quarter you’re in.

Brandi Lewis (28:33)
Yeah. And so when you leave, you graduate SCAD and you graduate with fashion design. Am I correct?

Ashley Lewis (28:42)
Mm-hmm, so I have a Masters of Arts in Fashion Design. I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Interior Design.

Brandi Lewis (28:46)
Okay. ⁓

Yes. And then after graduating, what did you want to do? What was on your mind? Where did you want to go next?

Ashley Lewis (28:57)
Well, funny enough, I must be really good at connecting with teachers because I had a really great teacher at SCAD, Troutman, and she was connecting, not just me, but other students, connecting students with internships while they were at SCAD, if she felt like that was something that they could handle.

Brandi Lewis (29:21)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (29:22)
So she connected me with an internship for a local place and I interned there. The internship turned into a full-time job, but I was also still a student. And so that’s why I mean like, SCAD is like, I got there, but like staying there, that was another thing like, my gosh, I could just leave. Like I have a full-time job now. I’m like actually designing and working for a real company. Like I can just leave. But I had made that.

Brandi Lewis (29:41)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (29:50)
promise to myself. And I was like, I can’t say no to this dream because God gave me this dream and he made it happen. So I like, I felt like I would be like giving up on myself. And I was like, nope, it’s a goal of mine. I’m going to complete my goal. I’m going to complete my dream of getting this degree. And so yeah, it was hard. Like I was working crazy hours and there was like one semester where I had a class in the middle of the day.

So, and then what you don’t realize at SCAD is classes are like two and a half hours. They’re not short classes. So you sit in a class for two and a half hours. So I would take my lunch and I would consider like one hour of my class and the extra other hour and a half, I would either come in early. So either come in like at like, I think our hours were nine to six. I would either get there at eight or if I didn’t get there at eight, I would stay late to make up that extra hour and a half.

Brandi Lewis (30:25)
Yeah, I remember they were alone.

Ashley Lewis (30:48)
Then on top of that, I would leave there and go and study at SCAD at night and get ready for class the next day. So it was a lot of like, I did that for a year and a half or so. And I finally found out, I was like this close to giving up just because of like how intense it was. There’s so much going on. And then I found out I had one more class left to graduate. And I was like, I might as well just do it. Like I have one class.

Brandi Lewis (31:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, you

don’t have, yeah, you might as well.

Ashley Lewis (31:16)
I’m here, it’s

the end. So I did my last class. And yeah, and then I graduated after that.

Brandi Lewis (31:24)
Wow, that’s so crazy. You have such a good work ethic though. Like you, if you put your mind to something, you will definitely achieve it and do it. for anybody out there that may need any type of advice of like, how do you keep going? How do you keep going when it’s tough, when it gets hard? Like what advice would you give to somebody?

Ashley Lewis (31:50)
⁓ I will say like, you have to kind of know that you’re gonna fail at some point and that’s okay. You’re gonna get a no and that’s okay. And you’re probably gonna get more than one no or fail at more than one thing during your time. But that shouldn’t stop you from doing what you wanna do. ⁓ If I let all the nos and I let all the failures.

Brandi Lewis (31:59)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (32:20)
get in the way, I would not be doing what I’m doing. Honestly, I can’t even tell you what I would be doing, but I’m just telling you I would not be doing this or doing what I saw myself doing in life. ⁓ And that’s what gets back to like, life is not easy. Life is life. And sometimes life be life-in. And life be life-in. And it’s not.

Brandi Lewis (32:40)
life be life and it does.

Ashley Lewis (32:45)
And you have to, I almost feel like you have to figure out, like you’re gonna do this, how can I beat you? How can I one up you? How can I outsmart you? That’s how I think about it. It’s like, how can I, you think you’re gonna beat me? It’s almost like you’re battling with somebody. It’s like, you think you’ve got me? No, no, no, no. You don’t have me. I have you. I rule you. I tell you what to do. You don’t tell me what to do.

Brandi Lewis (32:52)
Yeah.

That’s such good advice, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (33:12)
And so

it’s kinda like, okay, ⁓ you put yourself into this mindset of like, I’m gonna fight this out and I’m gonna fight until I go down, no matter how hard it is, no matter how much you might cry through it, you might scream through it, you might dance through it, but you still did it. No matter how you did it, you did it and it’s okay to cry through it, it’s okay to dance through it, it’s okay to scream through it. Believe me, I shed a lot of tears while I was literally sketching.

Brandi Lewis (33:29)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (33:40)
from exhaustion at 3 a.m. or 1 a.m. I even had to, I’ll never forget one night I called my friend Kim, you know Kim. I called her over because I was freaking out one night and she came over, I’m not kidding you guys, and she stayed with me until like one o’clock in the morning and kind of helped me because I was so exhausted. I was not thinking straight. And so she helped me like, just like calm me down and like she let me cry and like let me do the things and.

Brandi Lewis (33:43)
Gosh.

Mm-hmm.

wow.

Ashley Lewis (34:09)
She let me nap for a little bit. She’s like, you’re fine, it’s okay. ⁓ So yeah, I mean, I think that’s what it is. It’s like, you have to battle with life and you have to not let it get you down. And it tries and it does. It will try you all the time, but you can’t let it. I’ve been through a lot in my life since I’ve been here in Atlanta. And I will tell you.

Brandi Lewis (34:28)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (34:36)
It can get you down, but you kind of have to figure out how to change your mindset a little bit.

Brandi Lewis (34:43)
How do you change your mindset? What do you do for like mental health?

Ashley Lewis (34:48)
I guess for me, ⁓ and I’m not the greatest at this, but I try to find things that I enjoy doing. ⁓ I try to find like, if it’s a new recipe or cooking or, ⁓ and honestly I love to find, I love to research. I love to read, but I love to research things. And maybe that’s where like that making things comes from, cause I’m like,

this seems interesting or that seems interesting, but I love to look at articles and research and like cook or for me, and I’ve had this goal of mine, I’ve always wanted to do a marathon. So that’s when I started and I used to run when I was in, you guys don’t know, in high school. I actually did used to run in high school and middle school and I have not ran for years, but I’ve always been athletic. So I was like, I wanna do a marathon.

Brandi Lewis (35:19)
Thank you.

Ashley Lewis (35:47)
What does that mean? How do you do that? So I started researching, started looking at marathon runners, started trying to figure out how they did it and like, how can I do it? And what does that mean for me? Because it’s like, I’m putting my mindset on something else that’s not fashion related. And it kind of gets my brain into just like a different mental space, which is nice. Like I don’t feel like I’m getting overwhelmed with that stuff and I can just take a break from it and focus on something else.

Brandi Lewis (36:14)
Yeah, it’s a fun hobby. It’s something fun. And you also exercise too, I think. And I think that’s great. Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (36:16)
Yeah. Yeah, I do. I exercise. So that helps

too. And honestly, like running is where I know people say like they literally that’s like their meditation. And I know a lot of doctors out there in psychology are like that’s not calming your mind and your body. It’s not. But for me, it works. It helps me just kind of like, like I’ll put on music and I can just like zone away from everything for just like

Brandi Lewis (36:42)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (36:43)
45 minutes, 30 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever the time is, it’s just like you just take that time and you’re not in a hurry and you’re just there, you’re present with yourself.

Brandi Lewis (36:54)
Yeah, I think that’s so healthy too, is to find something like you said outside of your realm of what you do every day, even when it’s your passion, like fashion design. Like I think it’s just so important to have something else to do outside of that. That challenges you in a different way or lets you use your mind less where it’s just fun. Like for me, golfing, like that was one thing I took up and I didn’t know how much I would enjoy it, but I really…

like golfing, like I love it a lot. it’s whenever I go out like to the driving rage or on a course, I’m like, I get why guys come out here every morning. I get it. It’s so peaceful. It’s so calming. It’s very therapeutic. ⁓ So like, yeah, I think everybody should pick up a hobby. And that’s a hobby I picked up what a year ago. I was like, I’m gonna take, I’m just gonna take lessons and see where it goes. But I’m like you, I feel like everybody should have

Ashley Lewis (37:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (37:52)
a hobby or something that they may not even look like they would do. You wouldn’t even think I would golf, but…

Ashley Lewis (37:58)
yeah, that’s how I got into horseback riding. Yeah, I did that. No, no. ⁓ No, it’s like one of my interesting facts, yeah, yeah.

Brandi Lewis (38:00)
Yeah, yeah, same. Yeah, you did do horseback riding. It’s just like something nobody would ever think and guess about you that you do. Yeah, but it’s so fun and it’s so therapeutic. Yeah, think

that’s so yeah, you’ve won like awards and stuff like little do people know. Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (38:15)
Yeah, I was actually pretty good

in my age division. was getting, I was placing like first and second. And I did that before I moved here. And that’s something I like started looking into more, because I want to pick that back up because it’s again, it’s like something that I enjoy doing. That’s not focused on just life. It’s like, I can just go out to the arena and it’s me and the horse and we’re just making a connection. And I’m kind of like,

I’m just figuring that part out. It’s like taking the little steps and for me those are like those little steps.

Brandi Lewis (38:50)
Mm-hmm.

But you started with piano. started piano was your first hobby. I felt like you picked up because we all we always used to go to your recitals. I loved it, though. But I think that’s what should be so natural is even when you’re older, you should be able to pick up a hobby, do something fun, like do what you want to do. I remember seeing a girl, she was a worker at a company that I worked at, but she

Ashley Lewis (38:53)
I did. I did.

recitals and i was the only adult yes people i was the only adult

Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (39:19)
picked up gymnastics and she was like the only adult there. And she was like, I’m going to learn gymnastics. But I think as adults, we do lose that sense of ourself is picking up a hobby or doing something just for fun. Because like you said, life be life. And it does. But I think it’s important to remember to do something like that, to keep you just like mentally sane.

Ashley Lewis (39:22)
Yeah.

Your life, I see life.

Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (39:41)
think that’s such good advice too. So after SCED, you go and work, I’m telling your story for you. Because I want to get to the exciting part of it is where you work today, which we all love to brag about because everybody’s eyes light up when you say, yeah, my sister works at SCED. It’s just so cool. ⁓ OK, I’ll let you finish. So if you’ll tell us like, I really want to get to that part.

Ashley Lewis (39:59)
Right now.

FIT

This happens all the time,

all the time. Welcome people to our world.

Brandi Lewis (40:12)
I really want to get to that part. It’s such a good story.

So I’ll let you tell it. Okay. So after Skadi graduate, now you’re fully in this role at this company. How long do you work there and talk to us a little bit about the hurdles that you go through there?

Ashley Lewis (40:25)
Yeah.

my God, I worked there for almost seven, seven and a half to eight years somewhere in there. ⁓ And it was good. was just like, honestly, it was like you’re starting a job for the first time. And we all know what that feels like. It’s scary. You kind of don’t know what you like signed yourself up for, but you’re excited and you’re trying to learn the people and you’re trying to learn.

Brandi Lewis (40:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Ashley Lewis (41:00)
all the work that goes into it. And also I think too is another thing is like in fashion is you don’t just work with your people in your office, you work with your partners, like all of your vendors that you work with. So like you’re working with multiple people and that’s something like I never had to deal with until I got into this career. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (41:14)
Hmm.

Ashley Lewis (41:25)
So navigating that and just making sure that like the information you’re sending back and forth and the way you’re communicating is efficient enough so that things can stay on track or on schedule. ⁓ But also that it resembles the intent that you desired for it to resemble, you know, and that it speaks to the customer and you you want her to like.

feel as much joy and happiness as you feel about it. Because honestly, us designers, put our creatives, we put our soul, our life, and we put our into whatever we’re doing. It could be a painting, it could be a photograph, it could be clothing, it could be anything like in the creative space, architecture. Like we do put our best foot forward.

Brandi Lewis (41:56)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (42:20)
And we hope that that’s like received from the customer on that side too. Cause we want her to enjoy it. Cause sometimes we’re like, this looks great. We’re so excited. And we hope that she like really feels the same way about it too. So yeah.

Brandi Lewis (42:28)
Yeah.

Yeah,

that’s pretty cool. sounds like you kind of leave a little piece of your heart in every thing you do art wise. Yeah. ⁓

Ashley Lewis (42:39)
next job after that, I started working at was Spanx.

and again, it was like, my gosh, different company, different people, houses. But I felt a little bit more at ease because I felt like I knew from the previous job, kind of like the day to day of like how things worked. ⁓ but it was just like figuring out the teams and all the people on the teams and

Brandi Lewis (43:02)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (43:08)
you know, who does what and what do they do exactly? Because the company it came from before had a smaller office. And so we didn’t have as big of a like breadth as far as teams did, as far as like Spanx does. So that was just figuring out like all of that information. How do we communicate together and who does what? So that was fun. And then I think through at Spanx, I’ve just like started to

find my little niche of what I wanted to focus on. I did at the previous company too, I did like focus on quite a bit just because it was a smaller company. ⁓ But at Spanx, I did finally find like my niche of like what I will be focusing on. ⁓ Not to say that that can’t change down the line, but like right now that’s definitely my focus and my goal.

Brandi Lewis (44:05)
Yeah, tell me a little recent project that you worked on of.

Ashley Lewis (44:12)
most recent project was the denim launch. We just relaunched all of our denim in, oh yeah, this fall, so 2025. And it was a great project to work on, because I’ve worked in denim before, but not at this breadth. And so we were able to give something to our customer that we felt like she was asking for. But also, like I said, we put a little bit of our heart into it. Like we gave them the…

best washes that wash range that we could put out there. We gave them some great silhouettes that we also feel like, but it also still has that Spanx magic. And that is one thing I will say working at Spanx is like, it’s very, it’s like innovation is the root of our company. And

Brandi Lewis (44:41)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (45:00)
we always try to make sure that most of our pieces that we put out there, she still gets that Spanx experience and that Spanx magic. So that was something that like we paid close attention to during the process, but the denim was great to work on. And then we have some great things coming for 2026 that ⁓ of course I like cannot talk about, but everyone stay tuned. Hopefully you guys will.

Brandi Lewis (45:08)
you

Hahaha. ⁓

Ashley Lewis (45:27)
pop on there in 2026 or sign up for the emails. But yeah, I really liked denim.

Brandi Lewis (45:32)
And

who, what, there’s a famous actress that actually.

Ashley Lewis (45:39)
so recently, and then we just had the cord, the corduroy launch too, which is the corduroy is so good. It just came out like last month. The corduroy launch just came out and then the campaign star, Tracy Ellis Ross, which is one of my icons and she looked. Yes, she’s amazing. Yes, she ⁓ looks so good in the cord pants.

Brandi Lewis (45:43)
haven’t seen that.

Okay. Okay, look at that.

Yes. And if you don’t know her, go look her up. Yeah. She is amazing. Her mom is Diana Ross. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Lewis (46:05)
She looks so good. And it also stars our Laleen collaboration that we just did for this.

Brandi Lewis (46:11)
How was

it like to see the jeans that you helped design and create on like a really famous actress?

Ashley Lewis (46:21)
you’re kind of stunned and shocked and you’re like, that is actually really cool. Like it’s, it’s like something you want to scream and shout about. But then again, you’re kind of like, people don’t even really know it’s me, but you’re so excited, you know, because like, mean, Spanx, everyone knows of like Sarah Blakely and that is who started Spanx. So they should know who she is, but it’s like, ⁓ like I actually touched these or actually like.

Brandi Lewis (46:23)
Yeah. Yeah, it is very cool.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (46:48)
worked on these, like with all my teammates and we did it and people were responding to it and she looks great in them. And so I think that was nice too. It’s like she looked really good and I hope that she liked everything. It seems like she did from the way the images were shot, just like looking at her face and like how excited she was in the product. So that was nice.

Brandi Lewis (46:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, she did.

Yeah.

That’s so awesome. Cause I mean, it goes back to what you said. Like you leave a little bit of your heart. Like you really put your, your everything into these designs and these pieces and you hope people like them. And then to something that probably was never on your bucket list, but to know that now like an actress is wearing a piece of clothing that you helped design and put all of that love into is, I mean, that’s pretty awesome. You know, me, the HR on me is like, that’s a resume builder. Like,

Ashley Lewis (47:39)
Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (47:44)
I am HR Brandy at times. But for real, being for real, that is totally a resume builder. Something that I would put on my resume is like a fun fact. Like, Tracy Ellis Ross wore jeans that I helped design. I think that’s so cool. ⁓ One thing I know we talked about before we get on the podcast was imposter syndrome. And I want to ask you this question of have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? But I do want to give the definition.

Ashley Lewis (47:46)
HR Brandy.

Brandi Lewis (48:12)
of imposter syndrome. So for anybody out there that may not know what the definition of imposter syndrome is, I looked it up on Google. So this is Google. Imposter syndrome is a psychological phenomenon characterized by persistent self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy, and a fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of success. So it’s when you feel like you are an imposter, you feel like…

Ashley Lewis (48:22)
Good one, guys.

Brandi Lewis (48:41)
I am a fraud and everybody thinks I’m doing this well, I’m not doing this well. I don’t feel like I’m doing this well, even though there is evidence of success of you doing it well. So I pose the question to you, Ashley, is first, have you ever dealt with imposter syndrome?

Ashley Lewis (49:02)
⁓ yeah, we were talking about this before and I honestly didn’t really know the definition of imposter syndrome, but I was looking when we were talking about we were looking this up and some of the symptoms that just kind of I feel like I relate to it’s like hypercritical of oneself. ⁓ or fear of being discovered or I think

fear of being discovered as incompetent or just like attributing success to external factors like luck. And you’re just like, I got that because I’m lucky. Like, ⁓ that’s just because we’re lucky or whatever. Like you don’t attribute it to anything. You don’t attribute to your hard work or anything that you’re doing. So I think that can happen. And as artists, you’re very critical of your work. You’re so critical of your work. ⁓

Brandi Lewis (49:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (49:56)
Cause when I started out in photography, I would always be like, man, I could have shot that so much better. Or ⁓ is there a way I could fix it with my camera? And that was before I had a digital camera I used to shoot with and I still have this old camera, a 35 millimeter camera. So what you shot is what you shot. There is no changing it. There’s no Photoshopping, nothing. ⁓ I mean, but I think it’s like, how do you overcome imposter syndrome? You just.

Brandi Lewis (50:14)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (50:25)
It’s really, really hard. And I’m not saying I know all the answers to it, but it can be really hard. You have to sometimes just like walk away. Like sometimes I just have to like walk away or not look at whatever I’m working on for a little bit and come back to it or just like let it sit and let it fester and not come back to it. Or if I’m working on a painting or something, just like if I feel like I’m not doing great at it and I’m like, this sucks.

then I just leave it there. And sometimes I come back and I’m like, it’s not that bad. I think it’s just learning how to be not so critical of yourself. And I think, again, that goes back to finding those hobbies and things that you enjoy that kind of just quiets your mind and gets you out of that critical head space. Because it’s so easy to do. I think the…

as we’ve said before, the world will beat you up. And so like when you’ve got that going on, it’s also really hard to kind of not so much get on the bandwagon, but it’s also easy to kind of just be like, oh, well, if that’s what they think of me, then how should I like, I can’t prove them any different. Like if that’s they think of me, if that’s what the world thinks of me, then I will never be as great as I think I am gonna be. And you just kind of have to let it be. I mean, let…

Brandi Lewis (51:33)
Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (51:48)
People are gonna be people and they’re gonna judge, but you can’t judge yourself because when you start judging yourself, then you will never ever keep going. You always set yourself back.

Brandi Lewis (51:58)
Yeah, it sounds like also what you’re saying is not accepting the things, cause life is hard and life deals us some cards that we never probably ever imagined that we would go through, but not accepting those things and taking them on, but learning how to grow from them and maybe just be a testimony for others also. That’s very true. the other day I was thinking back to like,

us in high school. And I was thinking back to people in high school and how, you know, in high school you’re like, ⁓ this is, this is going to be like life is going to be a breeze. You know, you’re thinking like, it’s not going to be that hard. Like everybody talks about, you know, I don’t know why we think that way. It’s the immaturity that is for sure. But I feel like, you know, as you get older and then

Ashley Lewis (52:38)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah.

Yeah? yeah.

Brandi Lewis (52:54)
You start going back to reunions and different events with people from high school and you’re like, wow, like I understand. Like we’re all trying. We’re really all trying to succeed and get there. And it is harder than I thought it was when I was 16, 17 years old. Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (53:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s so much harder. And you

go to those things and you all kind of talk about like what you’re doing and you know, and don’t get me wrong, everyone has a story. Everyone has something going on in their life. Everyone has.

Brandi Lewis (53:17)
Yep.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (53:27)
something that they might never ever be able to share or have the courage to share. And that’s okay. You don’t always have to tell your story or have to do just because this person is doing it or you see it being done in the world so much. Doesn’t mean it’s for you, but you have to realize that like we’re all, we’re all struggling and just trying to do, trying to make it and trying to do what we see ourselves doing or just do what makes us happy. And so sometimes you kind of just have to let that be.

and just let that be okay.

Brandi Lewis (53:57)
Yeah.

Yeah. And when you go back to those things of like seeing people that you went to high school with and you know, you’re like, understand. You become more, you have, I feel like you just have more grace and more understanding for people in different situations. And, and you see other people mature too, cause they’re like, I get it. Like a six year old me did not understand it, but now I get it. I understand life and what

Ashley Lewis (54:17)
Yeah.

No.

Brandi Lewis (54:24)
My parents have gone through and seeing adults at that time go through things and struggle and, you know, try and make it in life. So yeah, it definitely gives you a different outlook on life, but a ⁓ better appreciation for life and really just surviving life and making it through. ⁓ Because we all have goals and dreams or things we all want to do, but it is harder to really make those come true than what I thought it was going to be.

Ashley Lewis (54:46)
Yeah.

Brandi Lewis (54:54)
16 years old.

Ashley Lewis (54:54)
yeah, yeah. 16 year old me,

if I look back, I’m just like, I was living this dream that I thought I was going to be a gymnast, y’all. Like, I’m not kidding. I thought I was…

Brandi Lewis (55:04)
What? What? I’ve never knew-

Ashley Lewis (55:08)
That’s why I kept staying in gymnastics. was in, yes, I wanted to be, I wanted to be a gymnast. I don’t know why I wanted to be a gymnast. I was just, guess because I’m just fascinated. So random. Again, not for me. And that’s okay. I am okay that I am not a gymnast. It’s not for me. I have found other things like horseback riding, like running. Those are for me and that’s okay.

Brandi Lewis (55:08)
you

did not know this.

That is so random. never, I never saw that for a year.

Yeah.

Ashley Lewis (55:37)
That’s where I’m just like, it’s like self discovery, basically. You go through life and you discover what you do like and you go through life discovering what you don’t like. And sometimes you’re like, you look back and you’re like, ⁓ my gosh, what was I thinking? Like the amount of things that I thought I was gonna do at 16, like you get your first car, you get your driver’s license, and you’re like, no one can tell you anything. And I’m just, I got it figured out.

Brandi Lewis (55:40)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

You think you grown.

Yeah.

Yeah.